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Paddle Steamer PS Lincoln Castle

published by babymaggie on Fri, 30/12/2011 - 19:32

"The Lady of the Humber"

PS Lincoln Castle was launched on 27 April 1940, by A. & J. Inglis of Pointhouse, Glasgow. She is named after the Norman castle at Lincoln. She was delivered to the LNER in Grimsby's Royal Dock on 4 July 1941 to complement the 1934 Wingfield Castle and Tattershall Castle built by Gray's of Hartlepool. She entered service on 4 August 1941 on the New Holland to Hull public service. The route was operated by the London and North Eastern Railway until nationalization in 1948, when it was taken over by British Railways, later known as British Rail. Lincoln Castle served this route until 1978, under Sealink management, when known to be unable to pass a boiler inspection. At the time of her withdrawal, she was the last coal-fired paddle steamer providing a daily scheduled service in the United Kingdom.

For years, the Lincoln Castle ferried day-trippers between the banks of the Humber. Before she was laid up in 1981, she was described as "The Lady of the Humber" and was a regular sight on the water between Grimsby and Hull.

Purchased privately by the Johnson family in 1986 the PS Lincoln Castle was brought back to the National Fishing Heritage Centre, Grimsby having been sympathetically converted to provide a unique location as a restaurant, bar and function suite. A role that she would fulfil for a further 20 years.

Inevitably time takes its toll and the difficulty of moving the ship from the dock, due to the construction of the road bridge, meant that proper and regular maintenance of the hull was not maintained. This led to leaks that proved extremely difficult to resolve. In an attempt to facilitate repairs the ship was deliberately grounded on a slag pile constructed in one corner of the dock, so that she was exposed at low tide. However, it proved impossible to affect proper repairs from this location and the additional stresses placed on the hull plates ultimately made the situation worst. The costs of refloating the PS Lincoln Castle and getting her access to a dry dock were soon to become prohibitive to her owners.

Tragically, having been closed to the public since 2006, this important piece of our maritime heritage was needlessly broken up in the Alexandra Dock (Grimsby) in October 2010, despite a valiant last ditch attempt by the Lincoln Castle Preservation Society (LCPS) to save her.